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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26335450">Behind The Wheel</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowersforgraves/pseuds/flowersforgraves'>flowersforgraves</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>please help I'm in depeche mode hell [45]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Has Anyone Heard of the Left/Right Game? - NeonTempo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drabble Sequence, Gen, Pre-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:20:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,027</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26335450</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowersforgraves/pseuds/flowersforgraves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabbles for each of the protagonists.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>please help I'm in depeche mode hell [45]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1130651</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>We Die Like Fen 4: We Lived to Die Afen</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Behind The Wheel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/gifts">Gammarad</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>These are supposed to be drabbles and they say 100 words in libreoffice but I think AO3 disagrees /o\ I do know what a drabble is, I promise.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I. Ace</p><p>He finds the forum when he’s still in college. He’s not much for paranormal shit, but he’s not like, itching to prove how much smarter he is for not believing in it. But something about this forum draws him in and keeps his attention. Maybe it’s the people – he gets to know a few of them and, when Rob J. Guthard says he’s planning on taking a group on the Left/Right Game, he figures why the hell not. There’s definitely worse ways to spend a weekend than meeting up with a few online friends for a road trip to nowhere.</p><p>II. Blue Jay</p><p>Rob J. Guthard. Even the name makes her mouth twist with disgust. A skilled con artist at best, a deluded, dangerous psychotic at worst. People like him make her sick. Still, it’s her job – her responsibility – to pretend like she’s drinking his kool-aid, no matter how abhorrent it is. It’ll be easy enough to expose him. She’s done harder exposés before, but there are still somehow people gullible enough to believe in this rubbish. She spits on the ground, letting her revulsion show on her face for the last time before she steps into character as just another poor sucker.</p><p>III. Clyde</p><p>Actually, the more they talk about it, the more he realizes they’ve been Bonnie and Clyde all their lives. Fitting that it’s Bonnie and Clyde, too, not Clyde and Bonnie, because Martin has always been trailing after Linda, caught up in his sister’s schemes and plans and ideas. Of course he doesn’t mind; he’s perfectly happy to let her take charge and point the two of them at their target, whatever it may be. This feels like their last hurrah in a lot of ways – certainly not in a bad way, but somehow final nonetheless. Martin doesn’t really mind, either.</p><p>IV. Bonnie</p><p>They’ve always been joined at the hip. Even before Linda’s husband died, Martin had remained her best friend. He was always more cautious than she, but nevertheless game for whatever plans she cooked up. This one feels like a good plan – she and Martin have always been vaguely interested in this kind of thing, and having been frequenting this particular forum for years, she’s confident that there’ll be at least some kind of payoff, whether they end up in the otherness Rob has described or just spend some time on vacation together in Phoenix. She’s glad Martin’s at her side.</p><p>V. Apollo</p><p>His intro to this scene was through an ex-boyfriend, who’d been really into ghost-hunting and urban exploration. After the amicable breakup, he’d kept idly browsing some urbex forums, and eventually was drawn into the more esoteric side. The Left/Right Game thread had caught his eye from the start, and he’d even tried a few turns himself before Guthard had posted more extensive logs. He’s more curious than thrill-seeking, but he figures it can’t <em>hurt</em> to spend some time in Phoenix. Not like he lives far, and anyway he likes Guthard’s work enough to want to meet the guy at least.</p><p>VI. Lilith</p><p>Contrary to what she lets the others believe, she picked Lilith as a codename because it was her grandmother’s name. It was her grandmother who’d told her her first ghost stories about La Llorona, and her grandmother who hadn’t lived to see her meet Sarah and start their YouTube channel. The name is like a talisman for her now, tying her back to her family and culture even as she descends into the depths of weird internet forums. This trip, the Left/Right Game, that’s been Sarah’s idea, but she’s more than happy to bring her grandmother’s name along for protection.</p><p>VII. Eve</p><p>She’s always believed in ghosts. She lived in a haunted house growing up, though no one believed her. Meeting Jen in college was great, for more than a few reasons. She’s been looking for a partner to start a YouTube channel for a while, because for all her big talk and conviction she’s maybe a little bit scared to go seek out ghosts on her own. Finding the forum thread with the Left/Right Game is golden: not too scary for viewers, so they won’t have to cut out the actual exciting stuff, plus a trip to Arizona? Couldn’t be better.</p><p>VIII. Ferryman</p><p>Rob J. Guthard doesn’t know what drew him to that particular website, nor does he particularly care. Releasing the Left/Right Game to the world at large is regrettable in a lot of ways, and painful in a lot more. His son’s death is like an open wound that he’s ignoring – brushing too close with his thoughts only causes pain, so instead of healing he’s just letting it fester. This final trip (and he knows it’s the final trip, somehow) is a last-ditch effort, a last goodbye, before he abandons the road that took his son and daughter-in-law and his grandkid-to-be.</p><p>IX. Bristol</p><p>This is a curiosity. An interest piece, some flavor for this month. Alice is a hard skeptic, always has been, but Rob J. Guthard, the man himself, is enough of a draw for her to want to investigate what kind of man devotes himself so thoroughly to this game. Upon arriving in Phoenix, she’s shocked at his lack of outward charisma, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize that it’s the intensity of his dedication that draws people in. Alice may be a journalist, but she’s still human, and it’s hard not to be swayed by Rob’s belief.</p><p>X. Narrator</p><p>The audio logs keep him up at night. Not just the mystery of it – where Alice went, why she chose <em>him</em> in particular – but the reality of it. The sounds of the car brakes, the real fear in the voices, all of it screams in its visceral truth. He’s found himself unable to sleep for thinking about the transcripts, captivated by the Left/Right Game just as surely as Rob J. Guthard himself. He feels like he’s living a dream, and only he can figure out how to end it. The plane ticket to Phoenix is cheap compared to human lives.</p>
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